On his way home from New Zealand, Gordon Rennie visited Australian Nuffield Scholar Tony Lehmann on his 4,000-acre cropping farm 20 miles west of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales.
Wagga is half-way or 250 miles along the Hume Highway that links Sydney and Melbourne. It is a large farming town with an active livestock market every Monday and is the heart of the Riverina region of NSW.
Tony is a dryland wheat farmer, and therefore typical of the vast majority of Aussie wheat growers.
Unlike New Zealand, Australia is a major player in the global grains market and as such is in direct competition with the UK arable sector.
Growing wheat here is a challenge. Irrigation is simply not possible around Junee, where Tony farms.
The two main rivers, the Murray and the Murrumbidgee, have had severe restrictions in the past few years due to widespread drought.
What irrigation is available is limited to rice-growing in the north or other high-value crops such as grapes.
To grow wheat in such a dry region is a gamble and, to be successful, Tony must improve the odds. This has been achieved by moving from a tine-based seed drill to a single-disc-based direct drill. The discs hardly disturb the soil when seeding, so preserve moisture.
A small spiked wheel sweeps any straw residue from the previous crop, thus preventing ‘hair pinning’ (this avoids straw being pushed into the seed slot).
Tony also employs CTF or controlled traffic farming. So every piece of field equipment is designed to be used with GPS steering to ensure machinery always uses the same path in every field.
Tony bases his system on 105ft tramlines. The combine header and the seed drill are both 35ft wide.
All tractors have wheel centres set at 125 inches.
Part of the system is full stubble retention. The combines leave at least 2ft of stubble to ensure what is spread does not interfere with post-harvest drilling.
The direct drill is set at 12-inch row widths, so when the next crop is sown the drill is offset by six inches to ensure the seeds are sown between the rows of stubble.
The drill, tractors and combine are all John Deere and use the Green Star Guidance system, accurate to inch.
Tony entered a 210-acre paddock of wheat in the local crop competition this year and was delighted to win the Agricultural Societies Council prize for the best field of wheat.
The judges estimated a yield of six tonnes per hectare (t/ha), and the crop achieved this and was sold at £141/tonne ex-farm.
Tony’s rotation is simple: wheat, then oilseed rape, then back to wheat.
All seed is home-saved, and budget yields are 5 t/ha for wheat and 2.5 t/ha for oilseed rape.
Tony sold his oilseeds ex-farm for £271/tonne. To put some context to these yields and prices, farms here are worth between £900 and £1,000/acre.
I was also impressed by Tony’s attention to detail.
In such a fragile growing environment it is vital that nothing checks crop growth.
To this end sulfonylurea-based herbicides are banned by Tony as he is quite sure they can cause root cropping.
Anything which impedes rooting can reduce yield.
The problem is even worse where lime has been applied.
Tony has an immaculate workshop and he has invented a machine to apply zinc to wheat seed. With soils low in zinc, applying this vital nutrient to the seed enhances seedling vigour.
My visit ended with an excellent farmhouse dinner prepared by Tony’s wife Vicky. Relatives and neighbours joined and we all had a fabulous evening.
I am full of admiration for these Aussies. Not only do they have to contend with severe droughts, they live with the risk of bush fires just before harvest wiping out crops on a vast scale.
They never complain. They are tough and resilient people who pack so much into life.
The next day my lovely hosts, Tony and Vicky, insisted on driving me to Sydney Airport a 10-hour round trip.